The Young Man and the Sea, an Origin Story
by Elin B
Summary: It's a special occasion, in a way; and Usopp tells some of his crewmates an ancient folk-tale he just made up. Set in the future, with spoilers up to and including manga chapter 513. No pairings.


Author's Notes: This fic was originally inspired by the prompt "Ocean Soul" on a chaos thread, though it grew too long for said thread and was first posted outside it. Inspired by older One Piece stories by other writers with a taste of fairy tale and/or folklore.

SPOILER WARNING: The story is set in the future, a future that might not come to pass – only Oda knows if it will. It contains spoilers for the Sabãody arc, up to and including its end in manga chapter 513/anime episode 405.

DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations of One Piece are owned by Eiichiro Oda, their creator, which is a damn fine thing in my book considering what splendid stuff he gets out of them. They are used here without permission for entertainment purpose only. This fic is not intended for profit and may not be used that way.

The Young Man and the Sea: An Origin Story

A One Piece fanfic by Elin B

The first night after the crew is re-united, Usopp tells a new story to Luffy and Chopper and, eventually, Brook. They're back on the ship (which is all coated now), sitting on the grass on lawn deck. Chopper is fiddling with a new lantern that Franky's constructed, trying to light it properly: his face shines in quiet pride when he succeeds.

Usopp clears his throat and begins. He's not sure himself where the story will end up. He's had the basic idea for a while but it's more fun to improvise as you're telling it.

"Once upon a time many hundreds of years ago there was a young man who set out to sea all by himself. He soon gathered a great and devoted crew, and they went on to have all kinds of awesome adventures. The young man was very strong and brave and smart, and he was actually secretly – so secret he didn't even know it himself – the grandson of the God, no, wait, the _Goddess_ of Adventure. And maybe that was why he found adventures everywhere he went. Or maybe it wasn't, maybe he would have anyway! Anyway, they went about beating monsters and rescuing people in trouble and defeating evil tyrants and big bad villains and so on.

But they also made some people angry, and one of those was no other than the great and mighty God of the Sea. He was pretty touchy in those days, so it was easy to get on his bad side if you were unlucky! And one of the things he was angriest about was that he young captain had once tricked him into making a promise that he couldn't ever hurt or kill the young man himself, or anyone in his crew; or damage their ship. And gods aren't allowed to break solemn promises like that."

(At this point, Luffy frowns and objects, so Usopp has to break off and explain that the promise only covered things the god might do to them _directly_, like sending them a storm that shouldn't be there or goading a terrible giant squid to attack them. Gods could be real jerks back then, always poking into things. But it didn't mean the crew was safe from any _normal_ storms or enemies, oh no! So they weren't cheating, they really were proper adventurers putting their lives on the line and everything. And Luffy's right that otherwise they'd have been pretty boring.

Luffy doesn't seem wholly convinced, though. "Couldn't they just have beaten him up instead?" he insists.

"No, Luffy, they really couldn't," sighs Usopp. "Well... maybe they tried once, but it didn't work...? Yeah, and the young man realised it was a much better idea to trick him. Because he was pretty smart, unlike some other captains I could name but I won't.")

"Anyway ," he goes on, "while the god of the sea couldn't hurt them directly, something he _could_ do was to separate them. One night he reached out with his godly hands and grabbed the young captain from his bunk while he was sleeping, then brought him many leagues away onto a tiny deserted island. Then he pushed the ship into a strong, fast current in the other direction.

When the young hero woke up and started calling for his friends the sea god was first quiet, watching the hero's confusion with amusement. Then he spoke to him from the waves without taking visual form, letting the hero know he'd never see his friends again unless the sea god so willed it.

'Liar,' cried the hero. 'They'll come here and find me, or I'll get a boat and find them.'

'They won't find you. And you can always try,' said the sea god, chuckling as he left the young man to his thoughts.

"The hero did try. But the islet was so small it didn't even have one single tree to build boats from. Also there were no animals on it, no berries or roots and only a few puddles of rain water to drink. All there were were lots and lots of bones. And the only things that swam there was skeleton fish!" (This part makes Chopper and Brook shudder, though Luffy just perks up and says it sounds cool.) "So the poor young hero had very little to eat, only seaweed really." (This, on the other hand, is more effective on Luffy, whose eyes grow big and sad.) "He tried to build a raft from the bones but some big skeleton sharks rammed into it and tore it to bits, so he had to swim back to the islet again. There weren't any other islands in sight and no driftwood or anything either.

"After seven days and seven nights, the sea god came back in the shape of a great seal, standing up in the water in front of the hero. He spoke, 'If you release me from the sworn oath I made to you and yours, I will let you meet them again.'

'I can't do that,' said the hero, because he was very smart. 'I know you. If I release you from the whole of the promise, you will only hurt them, maybe even kill them.' He hesitated before saying the next bit, because he knew his friends would be very sad if he died, but then went on even so, 'I can release you when it comes to my part, though.'

'Not good enough,' said the sea god, and dove into the sea with a big splash and disappeared.

"Then seven more days and nights passed. The hero grew hungrier and hungrier and thirstier and thirstier and more and more lonely, until he started to have hallucinations. Meanwhile, his crew far away was trying all they could to find their captain, and so they were searching the sea methodically. At last the sea god got nervous by that and made a huge amounts of seaweed bloom all around their ship so it couldn't move from there. He also enclosed the deserted islet in a thick fog just to be safer.

The hero saw the fog but didn't know why it was there. He was very weak now. Then the sea god appeared again, throwing the hero a carp which he grabbed hungrily and devoured raw.

'Are you willing to agree to my terms now?' said the sea god." ("What did he look like this time?" Chopper wants to know. "Uh, well, he took the form of a merman," says Usopp, "only really really tall, with a great flowing beard." "Shouldn't he carry a trident as well?" says Brook. "I believe it's traditional.")

"The hero shook his head. 'I can't let you take my friends,' he said in a hoarse voice. 'But I have another idea, now. You can let them forget my crew ever knew me. Then they won't be sad, won't look all over for me and make trouble for you. And I won't even be remembered, so you'll have your revenge.'

The sea god pondered this, twirling his big scary-looking trident around threateningly." ("Ah! That's what I thought," says Brook in a satisfied tone.) "'I won't say I don't like the sound of that,' he admitted. To tell the truth, he was actually rather impressed that the hero would go that far for his friends. You'd think he would have realised something like that already from watching them before on their adventures, but he hadn't always paid much attention. Gods could be like that, back in those days…. But he's much better and smarter these days, honest!" (Usopp adds this bit of protective piety, because you just never know.) "'But,' the sea god continued, 'it's not enough. I know what your crew is like. Even without you, even without your memory, they'd still sail around and look for adventures and be troublesome.'

'Anything else?' he prodded. The god was getting impatient now and eager to settle this, because he knew that far away from there, the crew was starting to break free of the seaweed, and they had also become more and more convinced that the sea god was responsible for taking their captain away. They were talking about trying to attract the attention of one of the other gods to call for help. The god of the sea didn't want that to happen.

The hero thought a little more. 'Yes,' he said slowly. 'That I still release you from the promise when it comes to me, and you can... you can take away my ability to swim. Make it so that if I fall into the water, I sink like a stone, and can't even struggle.'

'That sounds better,' admitted the sea god, 'but it's still not enough.'

But right then, there was a clap of thunder and the sound of a trumpet, and the Goddess of Adventure herself arrived!

'Don't listen to him,' she told the hero, who was actually her grandson though he didn't know it. 'You don't have to offer any more than that.' She came closer to the God of the Sea and whispered something in his ear. He listened, grew pale and red; and then he nodded.

He turned to the young captain and spoke, 'All right. It will be as you say. What more is, I will give up all claims of revenge on you for how you've behaved in the past. But if you anger me in the future, take heed! For now you are not protected, and you will easily drown.' He shook hands with the hero, and disappeared.

"Then the Goddess of Adventure kissed her grandchild on the forehead, and the next thing he knew, he was back on the ship with all his crew around him. They all hugged him and cheered and the cook hurried out to the kitchen to make dinner, and the hero could eat as much as he wanted. And then they had a great big party!

The sea god thought the hero wouldn't last long with his new curse, but what he forgot was that his crew was always around to help, ready to pull him out of the water when he fell in. And he did fall in sometimes because he was not a cautious person, although not as much as SOME people. In the end, he lived a long and full and very happy life.

When he died at last many years later, a tree grew on his grave that carried very strange fruits. These fruits came from his adventurous blood and from his strange ability to make miracles happen; and anyone who ate them got wondrous powers, different for each fruit. But those who ate them also became hated by the sea, losing all abilities to swim, having to rely on people without such powers being there to rescue them.

This was the deal the Goddess of Adventure had made with the God of the Sea, so that the young hero could get back to his crew. Because she was a goddess, she had already known those fruits would grow, but she agreed to make them less powerful for his sake." Usopp pauses, then adds thoughtfully, "For _their_ sake."

Usopp slows down on the last lines as he finishes the story. He's gotten quite involved as he's been telling it, but now at the end he feels self-conscious, suspecting the tale is overly long at some places, and could do with added detail at others. But the audience doesn't seem to mind. Chopper, though quite sleepy, exclaims with wonder that he had no idea that was how devil fruits came to be, Brook calls it a lovely interpretation, very creative, and who's to say it didn't happen like that, anyway? He certainly wasn't, yohohoho! And most importantly, Luffy, who's been pretty quiet and dark-eyed at some points in the story, is smiling from ear to ear now. He looks very content as he lies back on the grass, looking at the stars above them.

"I still think he should have beaten the god up," he says. "But it's a neat story. I like it."

And then he falls asleep, just like that.

"I don't get why're they called _Devil_ Fruits, though," mumbles Chopper, leaning close to Luffy and yawning heavily.

"Uh, getting too late now," says Usopp, who hasn't even thought of working that in somewhere. "Tell you another time." He closed his eyes and rolled over to the side, sleep overcoming him even as he listens to the faint breeze in the leaves, the flapping canvas, the breathing and the first few snores of his nearby crewmates, and the ever-present sound of the waves.


End file.
